Così Fan Tutte
English National Opera presents Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the London Coliseum. Stefan Klingele makes his House debut as conductor.
The last and perhaps most exquisite of the Mozart/da Ponte collaborations, Così is a sublime opera for six voices (bar one chorus), where our two heroes, Ferrando (Thomas Glenn) and Guglielmo (Liam Bonner) are tricked into testing the fidelity of their fiancées, Fiordiligi (Susan Gritton) and Dorabella (Fiona Murphy), by the cynic Don Alfonso (Steven Page) and the maid Despina (Sophie Bevan).
But who is cheating on whom, and which is the guiltiest party? The girls for submitting to excessive flattery, or the boys for trying hard to force the girls' hands?
Kirostami - whose film A Taste of Cherry won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or - premièred his Così at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2008, in a co-production not only with English National Opera but also the Grand Thèâtre de Luxembourg. As it happens, the production will be overseen in London by Kirostami's trusted British associate director Elaine Tyler-Hall, as a result of complex issues surrounding his visa application at the British Embassy in Tehran. It's not the first time a production has been directed from afar (Dmitri Bertman couldn't be in Tallinn for the première of his production of Erkki-Sven Tüür's Wallenberg in 2007, banned by the Russian authorities from travelling to Estonia), but it remains, thankfully, a rare occurrence.
From its beginnings at Sadler's Wells, the opera company which sang its productions in English moved to the London Coliseum in 1968, changing its title to English National Opera in 1974. Following Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Charles Groves, Mark Elder and Sian Edwards, Paul Daniel led the company back to the Coliseum after its major refurbishment in 2004. Since May 2007 young British conductor Edward Gardner has been music director at English National Opera.
Related Information
Website: Stefan Klingele Website
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